


Adventures in Watcherland

by LostGirl



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2006-09-22
Updated: 2016-04-13
Packaged: 2018-02-16 06:08:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2258727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostGirl/pseuds/LostGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scenes from Rupert and Wesley's lives together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. New Thing Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rupert runs into an old ... friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [](http://bethynyc.livejournal.com/profile)[**bethynyc**](http://bethynyc.livejournal.com/) 's [](http://watcherlove.livejournal.com/profile)[**watcherlove**](http://watcherlove.livejournal.com/) [prompts](http://community.livejournal.com/watcherlove/230110.html): home, hop, final and One of our boys sees an old friend.

"Ripper?"

Giles still responded to that name, even though there were only five or so people in all the world that called him by it and he saw them rarely, if at all.  He turned to find Olivia smiling down at him.

"Oh, hello!"  Genuinely glad to see a friendly face after the nightmare that had been his flight home to California, Giles stood and pulled Olivia into a hug.  It was short, which seemed to surprise her.  He gestured to the bank of seats where he'd been seated, expecting Olivia to make some sort of excuse.  'Can't stay, plane to catch', or some such.  After the way their last . . . encounter had ended, he certainly didn't expect her to sit down with him.  She did, though, setting aside a large carryon type bag.

"So, are you going home?" she asked, still smiling.

"Yes.  Sunnydale," he clarified when she seemed to need it.  From LAX he could be flying back to England after all, or he could be driving the final leg to the Hellmouth.

"I thought you'd planned to return to London, that you where thinking about it the last time we . . ." she looked a little sheepish, her eyes darting away from his.

"I was, but . . . things changed."  Giles didn't mention how they had changed, mostly because he wasn't sure Olivia would want to know.

"Ah."  She looked down at her hands and then back up to him.  He wasn't surprised when she didn't ask for details.  It was the details that had been a problem, the detail that monsters were real, the detail that Giles was a Watcher.  "I'm going to be in California for a few weeks.  Uh, maybe . . . I could drop by?"  She gave him the shy, and yet somehow suggestive, smile he'd always loved to see on her face.  It didn't make his stomach tighten the way it would have only a year ago.

"Uh, you could," he said, "I'm sure my partner would like to meet you."

"Partner?"  Olivia's eyebrow rose at, but her smile faltered a little.  Giles hadn't bothered to mention that she'd been the one to break things off; there was no sense in dredging all of that up.  "Well, that's wonderful!  I'm glad you found someone and I would like to meet her.  Perhaps next week?"

Giles, his own expression mischievous, let his eyes flick up and to the right, questioning.

"Next week would be wonderful.  Perhaps we could all sit down to dinner?"  Wesley's voice was a surprise to Olivia.  She gave a startled little hop, turning in her seat, a hand flying up to her chest.

"Dear God.  I didn't know anyone was behind me," she said shaking her head at herself.  "I--Wait, I'm sorry you're . . .?"  She looked from Giles to Wesley and back again, her smile growing wider.  "Rupert's partner.  It's a pleasure to meet you . . .?"

"Wesley," Giles said, giving Wes a warm, affectionate look.  It had been a week since they'd seen one another and what he really wanted was to get Wesley home and kiss him until they both turned blue from lack of oxygen.  "Wesley, this is Olivia."

Olivia stood, raising her bag onto her shoulder and reaching out to shake Wesley's hand.  "My pleasure," the two said almost at once.  Olivia turned to Giles then and smiled a little sadly.  She glanced back at Wesley, mischief flickering into her eyes, and then leaned down to kiss Giles' forehead.

"Hold on to him," she told Giles.  "He's cute."  Giles laughed, looking to Wesley, who was blushing.

"You have my word," Giles said in reply to Olivia, though his eyes were on Wesley and anyone watching would have thought he was speaking to the other man.


	2. Species Unknown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rupert and Wesley get caught off guard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [](http://deviantfantasy.livejournal.com/profile)[**deviantfantasy**](http://deviantfantasy.livejournal.com/) 's [](http://watcherlove.livejournal.com/profile)[**watcherlove**](http://watcherlove.livejournal.com/) [prompts](http://community.livejournal.com/watcherlove/231363.html): Collapse, dizzy, withdraw and The boys discover a new demon.

"How do I bloody well kill it?!" Giles shouted, diving off the library table and only managing to land on his feet by the grace of some benevolent power. He whirled fast enough that he made himself slightly dizzy. The creature came at him again and he lifted his fencing foil to parry claws, wondering if it would follow him if he left the library. Would that leave Wesley safe?

Unfortunately, given that the monster was at least ten foot tall and its claws were much more in the vein of pincers, it had the advantage. It snapped his foil two.

Giles gasped, scrambling backwards and just barely managing not to end up on his bum. He righted himself, but the demon was circling him, moving so that he couldn't dive for the doors. Giles feinted to the right and then dodged to the left as the thing took another shot at him.

"Wesley!" He snapped as he ran back toward the table, putting it between himself and the demon.

"I'm looking! I'm looking!" Wesley shouted back, his voice cracking with tension. Giles caught sight of Wes as he and the monster circled the table, Giles desperately seeking to keep some space between himself and those claws.

Wesley stood inside the book cage, trapped in there when the demon had rammed the door shut, jamming it closed. Unfortunately, Wesley was trapped in there _with all the weapons_. Fortunately, he was also in there with many of the identification books. The pages of which Wesley was turning so frantically that Giles could actually hear it over the thundering of his own heart.

"Quickly, love!" Giles urged as the demon finally figured out the solution to Giles' little diversion. It hopped up onto the table, howling and charging him. Giles dove under the table and crawled for all that he was worth. The demon decided it had enough of games and picked up the table, tossing it into the stacks and setting off a chain reaction as shelf fell into shelf. The library was filled with the cacophony as bookshelves found a new use as dominoes.

Giles yelped, flipping around and scrambling backwards as the demon bore down on him. "Wesley?" Giles' voice was barely a croak. "How do I kill it?" The last bit sounded desperate even to him and the demon made a sound that was suspiciously close to laughter.

"I can't find it!" Wesley shouted, his voice just as strained. There was a sound like something big and heavy crashing against metal, but Giles couldn't draw his eyes away from the demon. He thought it was Wesley, using an axe on the door of the book cage. He'd get through, but Giles wasn't sure he'd get through in time.

The demon was toying with him, coming in on him slowly and deliberately. Giles swallowed hard, his back smacking up against the wall. There was another thudding sound and a screech. Giles still didn't dare look away from the creature before him.

"Rupert!" Wesley called and Giles wanted to say something, wanted to call back to his lover, tell him to get through the window, to run, but the words clogged his throat in their rush to get out and no sound came from Giles' open lips.

The demon howled, rearing back. For one terrifying, never ending moment, Giles was certain that he was dead. That he would die in this library, killed by some unknown demon. Then he realized the demon was shrieking in pain. Giles blinked, transfixed as the point of a sword began to push through the thing's chest, elongating the skin before bursting through it.

The howling died abruptly. The demon collapsed, revealing Buffy who looked down at the thing and kicked it hard. "That'll teach it," she muttered, looking back up to Giles with a concerned expression. Her eyes checked him over quickly, finding him sweating, panting, but uninjured. "Sorry, I think it followed me back from patrol. I took one out in the park. I stopped to shower in the locker room, or I would have been her sooner."

Giles blinked, his breathing refusing to calm or slow. "Whm," was the only thing he could get out of his throat. Then he exhaled, tried to pull himself together. "Uh, could--could you help Wesley get out of that damn cage?"

"Sure," Buffy said with a shrug and Giles' eyes slid down to the hulking demon, shaking his head. Well, at least he was conscious, he told himself, shaking off that line of thought when Buffy asked a question. "What was that thing?"

"No idea," both Watchers said at once. Wesley came over to help him up and Giles actually found a weak smile as he took Wesley's hand.

"You did plan to run while that thing nibbled on my corpse, didn’t you?" Giles asked Wesley softly, giving him a mild, and completely false, glare.

"Hmmm? Oh, yes, of course. As soon it was distracted by your dead body, I had planned to make my break for it." Wesley's tone was faultless, dry and light, but the worry and fear still lurked in his eyes. Giles knew just how Wes felt. In fact, he was fairly certain his own eyes must show the same fear.

"You two are weird," Buffy said with a head shake. Giles and Wesley simply stood well back as Buffy spread out a few drop clothes on which to hack the demon to pieces. It would be easier to get rid of the body that way, not so heavy if they did it bit by bit. Wesley's hand slipped into his, squeezing briefly before it was withdrawn. Giles gave his lover a quick, reassuring smile before settling in to watch the damn thing get minced.


	3. Enough

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rupert has some bad luck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, this is the last of the Watcherpompt fics I've written, for now. ::laughs:: This one is in response to [](http://deviantfantasy.livejournal.com/profile)[**deviantfantasy**](http://deviantfantasy.livejournal.com/)'s Watcherlove [prompts](http://community.livejournal.com/watcherlove/222647.html).

Giles paced the edge of the confined area. Eight paces, turn right. Four paces, turn right. Eight paces, turn right. It was going to drive him mad. Sighing, he reached up with his good hand to pull off glasses he wasn't wearing any longer. His hand stopped halfway to his face and then dropped as he realized.

He didn't know how much time had passed. His watch had been broken at the same time his arm had been injured. It felt like days, but hours was more likely. He was hungry, exhausted, and his arm ached from the gash in his shoulder. He should sit down, he knew, calm down, think. Still, the restlessness and fear were beginning to get out of hand.

A trickle of rock dust pattered to the floor not far away and Giles' fear spiked. The structure wasn't stable. He'd seen some of the shifting for himself. An aftershock and it could all come tumbling in on him.

 _Wesley will find me,_ he told himself again, forcing himself to sit on a large bit of debris. The crypt he'd gone to, in order to take rubbings of its inscriptions, had collapsed under the strain of an earthquake, leaving him trapped in the lower level with the entire crypt above him. He'd told Wesley he'd be gone a few hours, normally there wouldn't have been any reason for Wesley to worry yet, but Giles had hoped that, with the earthquake, Wesley might come looking for him early.

 _Maybe he's been hurt, too_ Giles thought and immediately pushed it aside. He couldn't think that way, not with him stuck here. Those thoughts would drive him mad faster than the pacing.

The quiet, a thing for which Giles usually had to look, was unbearable. It weighed against him, pressing in with possibilities. What if they couldn't get the debris above him out of the way? What if he had a limited supply of air? What if--

Giles cut himself off, throwing himself to his feet and pacing again. He counted each step, over and over, as he circled the room. Fighting not to think at all, he checked his arm again, searched the area for his broken glasses, paced again. It wasn't working. He still had to keep shoving away thoughts, had to stop himself from--

"Rupert?" The voice was soft, muffled, but clearly Wesley. Giles looked around, trying to discern where it had come from.

"I'm here!" He called back, hoping to hear Wesley again, but there was no reply. Giles waited, tense, straining his hearing to its human limits, but there was no sound. Fearing he'd imagined it, Giles groaned, slumping back onto his makeshift seat.

"--out. Hold on!" Wesley's voice again, less soft. Giles straightened, eyes flying around the collapsed, and collapsing, ceiling.

"Wesley?" No reply. Giles growled softly to himself, standing and pacing again. He was afraid to speak too often, too loudly, though he knew his voice alone was unlikely to trigger a collapse, or at least he hoped that to be the case.

Something brushed through him. Giles stiffened, recognizing a spell had been cast, but unable to tell anything more. The magic hummed around him and Giles prayed it was a good sign. A location spell, something to stabilize the structure, either of which would be well within Willow and Tara's range with them working together.

Another shifting sound. Giles' head snapped in the direction of it, his breath catching in his throat before he realized it wasn't instability. Someone was moving aside the stones.

Light poured in, blindingly bright, and Giles squinted against it. A hole had opened up in structure and he saw Buffy, or rather Buffy's silhouette. "Hey, dead guys," she said, apparently addressing the crypt's residents. "Any of you seen a Watcher? I'm one short."

"Buffy," Wesley snapped and a wave of relief washed through Giles at the sound of his lover's voice.

"Relax, Wes, I can see him. He looks . . . Oh."

"It's nothing," Giles called up, ignoring the twinge of pain in his shoulder as he gripped the rope that was dropped down to him. He tied it around his waist and attempted to climb up. As soon as he tried to pull his weight on his injured arm, pain flared, dragging a sharp groan from his throat.

"Rupert?" Suddenly Wesley's silhouette was above him, edging Buffy's from view. "Are you all right?" The worry in Wesley's voice made Giles want to lie, to say that he was fine, but since he wasn't going to be able to climb out . . . "No. My arm's gashed."

"We'll pull you up," came Buffy's voice. "Can you hold on?"

"Yes. I'll be fine," he assured her as he moved the rope to make things easier. After enough grunting to make Giles consider going on a diet, Wesley and Xander finally helped him crawl out of the rubble. Giles groaned, leaning against Wesley and getting dust all over Wesley's clothes.

The others gathered around, asking too many questions at once. Was he all right? Did he need to go to the hospital? Had he hit his head? Giles opened his mouth to answer one question only to have another asked before he could.

"Stop." Wesley's voice was firm, cutting through all the other voices. Giles relaxed a bit, smiling as Wesley took charge of the situation. In no time, Giles was bundled into the car and heading home. Wesley was quiet and Giles leaned back against the headrest, letting his eyes close.

"You shouldn't sleep if you hit your head," Wesley said, voice soft and filled with worry.

"I know," Giles said without opening his eyes. He reached out his good hand and laid it on Wesley's thigh, squeezing gently to reassure his lover. "My arm's the only thing hurt."

"You could have died," Wesley's voice shook. He was concentrating hard on driving, his eyes never moving to Giles at all, or at least never seeming to. Giles got the feeling Wesley might be aware of every little move he made just then.

"I didn't." It was all there was to say. Giles wouldn't lie and say that there was no way he could have. There was, almost every night, something that could kill one or both of them. This was just the most mundane of examples.

"That's all we get, isn't it?" Wesley said softly, after a protracted silence. And Giles knew just what he meant. That was all the comfort there was. Giles hadn't died. Not this time. Not yet. He hadn't. And that was all they had.

"Yes." Giles squeezed Wesley's thigh again. "It's enough," he said softly, making a statement and asking a question at the same time.

Wesley parked the car outside their flat, but neither of them moved. Wesley's hand came down to cover Giles', holding tight for a long moment before Wesley lifted Giles' dust covered hand to his lips and kissed Giles' palm.

"It's enough," Wesley finally said, giving Giles a small, only slightly weak, smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts: One of the boys gets trapped.


	4. Getaway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Giles has found the perfect vacation destination. Or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is in response to bethynyc's Watcherlove prompts. Took me a little while to finish it and there's still two more to come! ::laughs::

The sand was silver white in the moonlight and the waves did indeed crash upon the shore with a rhythm like a heartbeat. Giles had picked this destination for its beauty and it lived up to all expectations in that regard. It was quiet, terribly romantic, and so set apart from everything that they'd had to rent a pickup truck just to get out to the house they'd rented.

It was also infested with Kersnarc demons.

"You've got blood on your shoe," Wesley said, giving Giles a small smile. Giles let out a snort of laughter, unable to resist the humor sparkling in Wesley's eyes. Stepping over the gory remains of one such demon, Giles went to Wesley, laying his forehead against his lover's.

"I'm so sorry, love," he said, still giggling softly.

"I understand," Wesley said, tilting his head to brush their lips together. "It's hard to find a good vacation spot these days."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts: Our boys travel someplace exotic; pickup, gory, understand


	5. Needed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For Miniera, who wanted a romantic moment.

Wesley kicked the trashcan outside his building, heedless of the racket. The pain shooting through his toe was another matter. His shirt was torn and he had bruises forming even as he limped up to the flat. It had simply not been his night and there wasn't even anyone at home to tell about it. Rupert was at a conference and Wesley was on his own.

Sighing, he went to unlock the door and found it already partially open. He drew his gun and toed the door the rest of the way. His eyes went wide as he took everything in. Candlelight. Music. Dinner. Wine. Rupert.

"Surprise?" Rupert said a little hesitantly.

"I thought... you were at a conference."

"Thus, the surprise," Rupert said with a soft smile Wesley couldn't help but echo. His night was finally looking up.

"The suitcases you left with?"

"In the car," Rupert replied, motioning Wes into the flat. "Sit down. I'll get you some clothes and we'll have a nice dinner, relax a bit."

"Thank you," Wes said softly, brushing his lips over Rupert, motioning toward the table, set with candles. "It's, uh . . ."

"Sentimental? Cliched?"

"Just what I needed." Wesley grinned.


	6. Insane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For Glimmergirl, who wanted a beach.

"It's quite beautiful out here," Giles whispered, eyes glued to the ocean, so dark and sparkling in the moonlight.

"It is. Were we not both covered in vampire dust, this might be romantic," Wesley snorted, shaking his head.

Giles glanced over at Wes, then back at the ocean. "You know, we don't have to go all they way home to get this stuff off of us."

"Yes, but then our clothes would be wet. We'd drip all over the car."

"Who said anything about clothes?"

"Skinny dipping? Are you insane?"

"Yes. You?

"Rather," Wesley nodded as he began to strip.


End file.
